Terrific week: from Temple to Turku

How did it get to be June already?! 

Could someone please slow the time down a little bit!

We went to the temple on Tuesday evening. 

The Matis' met us there and had reserved a spot to do sealings. 

Afterwards, I was taking pictures and Elder Matis commented on how beautiful it was, 

and said the only thing that could make it more beautiful was to have us in the picture.

 The blossoms at the temple were all very beautiful!

On Tuesday morning when we went on our walk, it looked like there was snow on the ground. 

It was just the white fuzz that we had seen being blown around a few days before.

 There were lots of yellow wildflowers.

 We saw his cute group of kids out for a walk when we were driving out of our garage.

I think that every woman in Finland knows how to knit, and many of them knit socks. 

Many of the homes we have visited will have a basket of socks available 

to wear while you are visiting (especially in the winter).

After seeing that Sister Harris had learned to knit socks, I wanted to learn.

I had said something about that at the office one day and Sister Laitinen said that knitting socks was her passion.

She has been teaching me to knit a sock. 

She shows me what to do next and then I have to work on it 

until I get to the place where I need to change and do something different.

It has been slow going for me, but I finally got the sock finished on Friday!

Sister Laitinen said she was so proud of me. She said that it was beautiful and looked so gooood!

It has many mistakes, but I think it turned out pretty good for my first try. 

I am starting to work on its mate now.

  

This week we have had two of our kids driving across the country (USA). 

Stephanie, Clay and family were driving from Virginia to Star Valley Wyoming.  

And Nathan and Charlotte are driving from Provo to Bentonville, Arkansas. 

Not only did they have long drives, but earlier in the week I had read about all the flooding 

that has been occurring in  much of the middle of the US, which they are both crossing.

We have been worrying about and praying for their safety!

On Saturday, we decided to drive to Turku to visit Luostarinmäki Handicrafts Museum. 

The museum is a district of wooden houses. 

This is the only continuous district of wooden houses that survived the fire of 1827 in Turku. 

The houses are over 200 years old. 

They have been restored and set up as a museum to showcase various handicrafts 

found in Finland and the way they used to be done.        

I found myself being quite fascinated by all the different chairs that we saw in the various buildings.

The living quarters were very tight. 

We learned that they could make their beds smaller in the day time and then expand them at night. 

That way they were not quite as crowded in the day.

This first type is like what we would call a daybed today. It expands in width. 

This is one of the larger ones that we have seen.

 This next one looks like a very short bed for a child. It actually expands in length. 

The mattress looks so high because it is actually two short mattresses piled up.

We thought that the different roofs of the houses were interesting. 

This is what most of them looked like.

 Or this:

This one is a birch bark roof covered with rocks.

 On the inside, you could look up and see the birch bark between the wood slats.

 These ones have grass growing on the roofs.

Interiors

Exteriors

We were fascinated by the way that they could get the rain water to come done from the rain gutter into the rain barrel.

We stopped at the gift shop and I bought a few things to bring home, including this cute doll.

We ate our lunch in the car. 

We got a text from Sister Lehtinen telling us that the home that she grew up in 

was right near the museum, so we drove by to see it.

She told me that they lived on the second floor and that it was such a nice place to grow up.

We went to the Maritime museum and then on board the old tall ship.

Before we left for Turku, we hurried and texted the 3 missionary companionships who are serving there to see if they needed any supplies. We were able to stop at the office and pick up supplies. 

The sisters were not available for us to drop things off, but we were able to meet up with the Elders

and give them the supplies, which they will then deliver to the sisters at their next district council.

We always enjoy meeting up with the missionaries, even if only for a minute. 

Elder Aitken shared some of his chocolate covered almonds (from Costco) with us.

We love serving here in Finland and are grateful to be serving along with such great missionaries.

Today, we attended the Haaga ward again. 

They were having a cultural celebration after church today and we wanted to attend that. 

The Lewis' came with us as well.

Everyone was supposed to bring some food from their country.

We brought Jello, homemade bread, and rice krispie treats. 

Here are some pictures of some of the food.

American hotdogs, with American mustard.

 Many different types of Asian foods.

With a few typical Finnish foods as well.

 Several things from Brazil.

 Even some pao de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread).

Hyrum, I ate a couple of extra just for you!

 And this interesting and beautiful piece of art that looked way to pretty to eat. 

It is a Vietnamese flower (gelatin) "cake".

It was good to visit the Haaga ward again. 

We enjoy seeing the people that we know there and they all seem happy to see us as well.

On June 2, the sun rose in Espoo at 4:07 and the sun set at 22:32 for 18:24 hours of daylight.

In Provo, the sun rose at 5:58 and it set at 20:50 for 15:51 hours of daylight.